Superhuman learning

Review of 'Game Changer: AlphaZero's Groundbreaking Chess Strategies and the Promise of AI'

The ability to learn is a sign of intelligence. So is the ability to teach. What about the ability to teach oneself? Children learn their first language by decoding conversations, even without formal help. Really bright people teach themselves stretching beyond the known. A lot of artificial intelligence (AI) involves setting a few rules, and crunching tons of data to look for patterns and insights. This is akin to a child learning language. 

What can AI most effectively learn via this auto-didacticism? The AlphaZero algorithms provide some answers, and proof of concept. The algorithms were created by DeepMind, a British